Road to Emmaus

There have been crucifixions, too, in our town--innocents gunned down in their doorways or in school halls; or radiations black outlines, three crosses marked a sisters chest: no wonder we walk in quiet rage, musing

And who, on this road, will join us, seeming unaware of the worst news in the neighborhood, but spelling out the history of the prophets and a future: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? Could our hearts still burn within us?

Will we ask the stranger to stay? Break bread? And how will our well-hammered and nailed kitchens and bedrooms appear to us when we understand who he is just as he steals away?

Sandra R. Duguid has published in The Anglican Theological Review, Christianity and Literature and Journal of New Jersey Poets. She is currently the assistant director of the academic support center at Caldwell College, N.J.